Abhaya case: Order on pleas for reprobe posted to September 18

Former SP of Crime Branch, Kottayam, K T Michael on Tuesday told the CBI court that former CBI DySP Varghese P Thomas was responsible for the destruction of Material Objects (MO) in the Abhaya case.

 The material objects were destroyed after 79 days of his taking over the investigation, Michel in his submission said. Varghese had not informed the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) regarding the taking over of the investigation.

 Advocate S Chandrashekaran Nair appearing for Michel informed the court that the MOs were destroyed even when there was a procedure established by law which stated that it should have to be retained for three years. The plea of the CBI that the MOs were destroyed based on the final report of investigating officer K Samuel was out of place and contrary to the rules and procedures. Moreover, there was no attempt on the part of SDM court to ascertain whether there were any claimants for the MOs. Varghese who had taken over the investigation had purposely kept mum and encouraged the destruction by not doing anything to prevent it, the petitioner said.   

 Moreover, the petitioner said that Varghese had given contradictory  statements with regard to the number of pages in the case diary.

He said that the contention of Varghese that he was being pressurised by his superior officer to wind up the case was a blatant lie.

‘It is evident that Varghese and his superior officer Thyagarajan were at loggerheads. Thyagarajan had reported to the CBI headquarters about the misdeeds of Varghese and he was instructed by the CBI director to proceed with action. However, Varghese tendered his resignation,’ the petitioner said.  Michel also submitted the High Court order that had expunged the observations against him in the case.

 The CBI, in an affidavit submitted in the court, had pointed out that Michael, while in charge of the probe in the case, made grievous flaws and had instructed his subordinates to tamper with evidence.

 CBI Special Judge T S P Moosath posted the case to September 18 for giving final orders on the pleas for re-investigation filed by Abhaya Action Council convenor Jomon Puthenpurackal, advocate P Nagaraj and K T Michael.